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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29933004">Haunting You</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Roger_That_Sarge/pseuds/Roger_That_Sarge'>Roger_That_Sarge</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Ghost-boys [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Formula 1 RPF, Formula 2 RPF</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Ghost Hunters, Arguing, Established Relationship, Fluff and Angst, Friendship, Ghost Charles, Light Angst, M/M, Misunderstandings, Pranks and Practical Jokes, Reunions, Roommates, ghost charles living his best dramatic life, mick is fed up</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-03-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-15 22:33:52</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>8,106</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29933004</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Roger_That_Sarge/pseuds/Roger_That_Sarge</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Charles was used to his days blurring together, to staring out the window waiting for something that never came, to avoiding the ghost a few houses down that he believed wanted to kill him. Luckily, he was already dead.</p><p>The one thing he hadn't expected, was for the trio of ghost hunters to return and tell him they were moving in</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Callum Ilott &amp; Charles Leclerc, Kimi Räikkönen/Sebastian Vettel, Marcus Armstrong &amp; Callum Ilott, Marcus Armstrong &amp; Charles Leclerc, Marcus Armstrong/Callum Ilott/Mick Schumacher, Mick Schumacher &amp; Charles Leclerc, Pierre Gasly/Charles Leclerc</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Ghost-boys [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2201361</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>98</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Haunting You</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Haunting an empty house was a dull, monotonous, and lonely existence. One Charles wouldn’t wish on anyone.</p><p>Everyday he floated around the lifeless rooms of what was once his dream home. He disturbed the dust, picked up rubbish and objects that had fallen or broken during one of his fits. He sat on the bed in what had been his and Pierre’s room, hand’s pressed to the dusty worn comforter that Sebastian had left when he and Kimi had moved to the other end of town and thought of the nights they had spent together.</p><p>He recalled how Pierre would lie propped on his elbows above him, brushing Charles’s hair from his face as they laughed and teased, as they planned their future.</p><p>Charles had memorised every word of their last conversation in that bed. One where Pierre promised to return to him, where he had looked at him with love and promises in his beautiful eyes. The night he had detailed how when he got home, they were going to adopt their first child, that they would find their baby and give them an amazing life in this house.</p><p>Pierre had even joked about what colours they would paint the nursery, planning to use the room opposite theirs for their child so they would always be close during those first crucial years.</p><p>A month later Pierre was fighting for his life on the front line of a war he didn’t want to be a part of, but honour and duty called him, while Charles was in this very room, floating for the first time as he watched the smouldering smoke from the bottom of his nightgown swirl around where his body lay. A red puddle growing rapidly around his head, staining the pure white night gown.</p><p>His first thoughts weren’t panic, or regrets, or even Pierre.</p><p>Charles’s first thoughts as a ghost were that he hoped his blood didn’t stain his nightgown for eternity if he was going to haunt this house.</p><p>He tried not to remember his youngest brothers scream when he came to find him the next day and found no answer at the door. Tried not to hold onto the memories of his mother sitting on his bed, clutching that picture of Charles and Pierre as she cried.</p><p>He tried to forget, but sometimes it felt as if Charles wasn’t the only thing haunting this house. The sadness following him from room to room as if it had a life of its own outside of Charles’s ghostly body.</p><p>Days tended to blur into one eternal stretch as the years trapped in the house went by, watching as time after time people bought his home. Watching as they made it their own, as the room they had planned one day become a nursery and Charles exploded for the first time.</p><p>All the pent-up memories and sadness spilling over sometime during the mid-twentieth as he watched the young couple, Kevin and Nico, holding their daughter in the room that was meant for his and Pierre’s children. The dam had burst as they laid her in her pretty white crib, little mobile of bunnies playing gentle lullabies whenever Kevin spun it for the small child.</p><p>They had just been standing there, Nico’s arms around Kevin’s waist as they watched their daughter drift off to sleep when Charles couldn’t control his hurt and anger any longer, lashing out and making the windows shake. Books had fallen from the little bookshelves of children’s books, the rocking chair Kevin often sat in to sing to the child rocked wildly and doors began to slam, scaring not only the small family, but Charles too. He had no idea what he was doing or how to make it stop until the baby’s distressed sobs and screams had broken through his hurt, silencing the storm he had caused.</p><p>Kevin and Nico hadn’t stayed much longer after that, despite Charles never appearing to them or interfering with their lives. No one ever stayed long in this home, and eventually Charles had decided being alone and wandering his home was better than watching others live a life he couldn’t.</p><p>He never wanted to hurt any of the house’s owners, never wanted to truly scare them. All he wanted was to not feel the burning jealousy and sadness that consumed him as he watched couples repaint the walls and tuck his box of belongings into the dusty, spider filled attic where even as a ghost, he refused to go.</p><p>Sebastian had survived the longest in the house. Only in his mid-twenties when he first arrived, laughing every time Charles moved his things or knocked pictures from the wall. He had been the first person to joke about having a ghost in the house, even going as far as to jokingly call out to Lucille whenever something weird happened.</p><p>Charles had retaliated to the name by burning those god-awful shorts he wore. Despite Sebastian’s slight terror at seeing his shorts burning in the fire that he hadn’t lit, his partner Kimi’s laughter and thank you that he threw out to the ghost ‘saving Seb’s fashion sense’, made Charles feel lighter than he had in years.</p><p>They had been the only people he had ever appeared to since his death. Allowing himself to tease Sebastian, play cards with Kimi, or on occasion help Sebastian cheat at cards with Kimi. Yet in the end they had left, Sebastian shaking his head sadly as they packed up their belongings and telling Charles that they couldn’t live their lives with a ghost when Charles lashed out over wedding plans and talks of children.</p><p>Although they still called, changing the sheets on the bed in Charles’s room from time to time, he stopped appearing to them. He let time merge together once more and spent his days staring out the window as he had down when he was alive and waiting to see Pierre coming through the garden gate at last.</p><p>Sometimes he would even wander into the garden, listening to the screams of the ghost from two doors down. Sometimes she called out to him, her laughter dark and twisted. He tried to avoid her, thankful that she seemed to be as confined to her own home as Charles was to his. He remembered her dying, remembered watching from his window as they took her down for her crimes.</p><p>To this day, fifty years after she had appeared in that front garden yelling and laughing, she still terrified him.</p><p>Other than the screaming of an insane criminal, Charles had little interaction with the world apart from what he could see from his window and garden.</p><p>And even people watching lost its appeal after he had been dead for almost two hundred years with only loneliness and regret as his companions.</p><p>The only interesting thing to happen since Sebastian had moved out was the trio of baby ghost hunters that had invaded his home with their weird machines, stupid jokes and so much pining between the three of them that Charles could almost taste it in the dusty air as he had watched the two dark haired boys watch Mick with hearts in their eyes and smiles on their faces.</p><p>Those few hours had been exhilarating, made him feel as if he was living again as he answered their questions and jokingly threw pebbles at them. Even if talking about Pierre and his death struck a chord within him that made Charles want to break every object within his eyesight, seeing the trio protect each other and admit their feelings had been worth the pain of letting Mick in.</p><p>He had watched them leave, as he always did, like they all did, at the end of the night. Watched as Callum cupped Mick’s face, smiling wide as he kissed him sweetly before kissing Marcus while Mick smiled, glowing with joy.</p><p>As they drove off, Charles had become more aware than ever before of how empty this house was and how he ached to feel that type of love and joy once more.</p><p>The days after their visit, Charles spent in his room. Staring at the image of what was, frozen beautifully in time. He dug through the chest Sebastian had brought down from the attic. Wishing he could cry as he ran a hand over his wedding dress, remembering how the deep blue with gold lining had looked on him that day. Most brides wore white now thanks to Queen Victoria, but when they had wed at the start of her reign, wearing your best dress had been the norm. He couldn’t imagine a white version of his dress; it was perfect as it was.</p><p>The fact his mother had tucked it away for him, and Sebastian had gotten it cared for and stored properly made Charles smile.</p><p>He filled his empty hours with memories. Touching trinkets from Arthur and Lorenzo, his wedding band and first piece of jewellery Pierre had gifted him, a beautiful simple necklace. He read and reread letters, all the ones Pierre had written through their friendship and courtship, only ending a few days before his death.</p><p>Those ones he avoided. Unable to see Pierre’s enthusiasm for returning home to him without break what little objects Sebastian had left when he had moved out to start his own, ghost free life.</p><p>It was when he was staring at those last letters, attempting to work up the courage to read them, to flip them over and follow Pierre’s familiar writing, when he heard the buzz of electricity.</p><p>If he hadn’t been dead almost two hundred years, the lights flickering on would have made him jump. He was thankful that no one was around, because while he didn’t jump, he did yelp as the overhead light came to life with a fizzing sound.</p><p>Charles tucked the letters back into the folder Sebastian had put them in, closing the chest before wandering into the hallway. The lights were on out there too, baffling him further as they had died weeks after Sebastian had left and no matter how angry or sad he got, Charles had never been able to will them to life or control them as he had when they were working.</p><p>In his fascination with the return of the lights, Charles didn’t hear the tinkling of the front gate opening or the voices in the yard until the front door swung open with a bang, making him recoil from the top of the staircases until a familiar voice drifted up the steps.</p><p>‘Marcus! You have to ask to be invited in, how many times have I told you to respect the spirits’, Mick’s tone was exasperated btu Charles could hear the smile in his voice from where he was hiding in the upstairs hallway.</p><p>‘Yeah Marcus, do you want Charles to throw another pebble at you?’, Callum teased, joining the footsteps in the lower hallway.</p><p>‘Don’t you act as if I didn’t just watch you walk through that door without greeting Charles, Callum’, Mick sighed.</p><p>‘Do you want to tell Mick, or should I tell him he’s also inside the house now and hasn’t greeted Charles?’, Marcus laughed, Mick cursing in German being drowned out by Callum’s loud laughter joining Marcus’s.</p><p>Charles smiled as he moved closer to the stairs, peaking around the corner to gaze down at the trio. Mick had his head buried in Callum’s shoulder, still muttering curses while the Brit patted his back. Callum was sharing an amused look with Marcus who was still laughing, leaning against the wall, watching the other two.</p><p>Love was radiating off them.</p><p>‘Hey Charles, buddy, want to help us with our bags? Maybe carry them inside, save us the trips upstairs?’, Marcus called, hands cupped over his mouth as Mick gave him a gentle slap on the side of his head.</p><p>‘Please ignore him Charles’, Mick tried to sound annoyed but the smile on his lips wasn’t convincing anyone, ‘But could you come talk to us for a moment?’.</p><p>Mick was staring at the top of the stairs, surprising Charles once more with his abilities. Not many empaths were able to sense exactly where he was. Instead, they simply had the creeping feeling of someone watching them from all angles of the room.</p><p>He rolled his shoulders, taking a deep breath that was purely for calming his nerves before he spoke.</p><p>‘I suppose if my adoring public demands it, I can spare a moment’, Charles put on a deep sigh, as if the mere thought of manifesting were bothersome to him.</p><p>Charles was in no way responsible for how the strap of Mick’s messenger bag snapped as the young German rolled his eyes and called Charles dramatic under his breath.</p><p>Despite his ‘innocence’ in that matter, Charles couldn’t help but grin as he manifested at the bottom of the stairs, one perfect eyebrow arched as if to say, ‘Yes I am dramatic, what of it’.</p><p>He also couldn’t help leaning towards Callum who had his back towards him, remembering the young man’s reaction to him surprising him the last time, and whispering ‘boo’ in his ear. Delighting in how Callum yelped, almost shoving Mick to the ground in his shocked state as he tried to move away from Charles behind him.</p><p>Luckily, Marcus managed to catch Mick despite his own body shaking laughter.</p><p>‘Oh man, your face Callum. Priceless. Do you need a change of underwear after that babe?’, Marcus had to use Marcus’s shoulder to steady himself as tears pricked his eyes with laughter.</p><p>‘Are you done being dramatic?’, Mick asked unimpressed as he stared at Charles.</p><p>‘Don’t ruin a dead man’s fun, but if I must…I will resist scaring the tall one for now’, Charles waved a dismissive hand, burying his excitement and happiness at their return.</p><p>Although judging by the smile on Mick’s face, the little empath could sense how much Charles was enjoying seeing them again.</p><p>‘So, what brings you to my lovely dusty abode once more, mon Cheri?’, Charles implored, moving towards the living room, the trio following him like ducklings and settling on the plastic coverings on the couch.</p><p>‘Well…. we wanted to ask-’, Mick began, but was cut off by an excited Marcus.</p><p>‘We’re your new roomies!’, Marcus exclaimed, nearly hitting Mick and Callum in the face as he thrust his arms out while sitting between the two who strategically ducked.</p><p>Charles stared at them in confusion, not daring to believe the words the Kiwi man had uttered in excitement. No one ever wanted to live here. Sebastian refused to sell or rent knowing Charles was here.  No one ever wanted to stay in a home haunted by a ghost.</p><p>‘What Marcus means to say’, Callum gave him a playful glare, ‘Is that we talked to Sebastian, and he agreed to rent us the house as our lease was up, and Mick didn’t like the idea of you alone in this big house anymore’.</p><p>Charles’s eyes flicked to Mick. The German blushing and ducking his head shyly before meeting Charles’s eyes before laying his head on Marcus’s shoulder and smiling sweetly.</p><p>‘You were so sad the last time, and when we were leaving. At least we are used to ghosts, you don’t have to worry about scaring us off’, Mick reassured him, most likely feeling Charles’s conflicted emotions and nerves.</p><p>‘Yeah mate, if we can live with Marcus practically shaking the house every night with his snores, we can easily adapt to living full time with a dramatic ghost’, Callum laughed, wrapping an arm around Marcus as the Kiwi tried to shove him off the couch.</p><p>‘You want…you want to stay here?’, Charles asked quietly, looking away from the young men before him.</p><p>‘Course we do! It’ll be fun!’, Callum beamed at him, the other two nodding and Marcus even going as far as to bat his eyelashes at Charles until he laughed, nodding with them.</p><p>‘Great, that’s settled’, Mick smiled, standing and clapping his hands together, ‘Now to figure out what goes where and begin to clean, cause no offence Charles, it really is dusty in here’.</p><p>The other two groaned, swapping tired looks at the idea of unpacking the van and car outside and cleaning the house.</p><p>Charles decided now was the best time to put his ghostly gifts to work.</p><p>‘Just for that mon Cheri, I think I will suddenly find that my energy is waning, and I can no longer stay manifested’, Charles smirked, waggling his fingers at the two protesting humans while Mick glared at him as he let himself fade from existence.</p><p>‘Let’s move in with the ghost, Mick said. It will be fun, Mick said’, Callum grumbled, as Mick shooed them off the couch to go grab their boxes from the van.</p><p>And it was fun.</p><p>Charles felt alive for the first time since he had died. His days were no longer endless. There was no more standing and staring out the window, wishing for things he could no longer have.</p><p>Instead, they were filled with talking softly with Mick, suggesting colours for him to paint the spare rooms, and going over interior design options while gossiping. Watching Mick’s cheeks flush red as he all but whispered to Charles about how the change from friends to boyfriends had affected his relationship with the others.</p><p>Charles had laughed so hard one day that he disappeared due to lack of focus, leaving a spluttering Mick, red faced and shocked sitting on the floor of Charles’s room after he had tried to throw a pillow at Charles for asking about the trio’s sex life, only to hit Marcus in the face as he opened the door to ask Mick what he wanted for dinner.</p><p>The question had gone unanswered until Charles got bored one day, deciding to manifest in the middle of the room, head tilted, and eyebrow raised as he gave Callum ‘advice’ on how to fix his game as Marcus rolled off the bed, stark naked and crying with laughter while Mick covered himself with the blanket.</p><p>Charles had offered a simple ‘you were doing it wrong’, and then commented on ‘I didn’t know a flush could spread that far’ at the way a red embarrassed flush seemed to overtake Callum’s face, neck, and chest before disappearing.</p><p>Callum had avoided him for a few days, blushing every time Charles popped into the work room filled with their equipment and research, and leaving as soon as he did.</p><p>The ignoring didn’t last too long, Charles winning him over by displaying how he could use his energy field to stop objects falling mid-air. Mick might have been an empath, sensitive to moods and where ghosts were due to the aura they gave off, but Callum was a fascinating walking encyclopaedia of knowledge on electromagnetic fields and physics.</p><p>Charles had spent hours in the work room with Callum, testing his abilities. It involved a lot of flickering lights, a complaining Mick when he made the television flick between channels and once an angry naked Marcus. He had stormed into the room naked, dripping water and suds all and shouting about how their little experiment had caused the water in the shower to heat suddenly, leaving a painful red streak down his back.</p><p>Charles had actually felt guilt about that one, they had been trying to see if he could make Callum levitate and he had no idea how he had fucked with the water. His guilt however didn’t stop him commenting on his new belief as he had sighed, raking his eyes over Marcus with his hair askew with shampoo and stated, ‘I think you might be an exhibitionist; I have seen your truncheon and whirlygigs too many times for it to be accidental, mon Cheri’.</p><p>The noises Callum had made had Charles seriously concerned that he had some how choked on air and decided to join Charles in the afterlife. While he was trying to figure out how best to explain to Mick that he had killed his beloved, Marcus had stood there with a hand finally covering himself and looking mildly annoyed.</p><p>‘Whirly…. truncheon, what does any of that mean?’, Marcus had yelled in frustration, Callum making another death noise on the floor.</p><p>Charles had simply smirked, giving a pointed look at his covered bits as Marcus spluttered before scurrying off to complain to Mick. The sound of Mick’s startled yelp and yelled ‘for Christ’s sake Marcus would you put on some pants’, had Callum gasping for air and Charles regretting ever agreeing to these fools living in his home.</p><p>Despite his pouts and smirks, Charles may have made sure to stay behind Marcus later that night. Out of sight, but hands pressed to the slight burn on Marcus’s back to allow his natural cold spot sooth the sore area.</p><p>Mick called him a softie. Charles ignored him for two days until he got bored and began to pester him with sex advice, if only to see how Mick’s face flushed to his ears.</p><p>His relationship with Marcus was softer than the other two. He joked with the youngest member of the house, helped him pull pranks on his boyfriends and even helped him in photographing the crazy screaming lady from down the street by shouting back to her while Marcus snapped pictures with his polaroid.</p><p>Yet most of the time he spent alone with the youngest ghost hunter was Marcus confessing his insecurities, lying his head wherever he thought Charles’s lap was as the ghost raked his fingers through the human’s hair, offering him actual advice and comfort.</p><p>Marcus was sworn to secrecy to never tell his boyfriends how soft Charles actually was for all of them. Their talks about Charles’s emotions staying between the two of them, and he respected the youngest for how even if he cried with Charles, he would still leave the room with a bright smile on his face and joke at the tip of his tongue.</p><p>As much as he would never admit it to them, the trio of idiots had changed his afterlife for the better and Charles hadn’t felt the overwhelming sadness grip him like it used to since they had moved in.</p><p>There was something about seeing the three of them happy together that made Charles feel warmth for the first time in almost two hundred years. Watching them go from a fractured group to the amazing partners he had known they could be was a journey he wanted seats to for the rest of his afterlife.</p><p>Callum and Marcus brought out the joy in Mick, something about them let the German let down his hair and enjoy life a little more than his reserved nature allowed for. While his soft nature and calm demeanour balanced that wildness in the other two, allowing them to settle and breath.</p><p>They had a relationship that reminded him of his and Pierre’s, one that was as easy as breathing and filled with joy. Everything hard they faced, they faced together and talked it out.</p><p>Which is why the sound of Callum and Mick arguing one evening drew Charles from where he was hiding in his room watching some reality show that made no sense to him but couldn’t stop watching on the laptop Callum had set up on a desk in his room.</p><p>He only seemed to catch the end of the argument as he drifted to the top of the stairs, peaking his head round the door as he had months before when they had first come back to move into the house.</p><p>Callum was wringing his hands, twisting the sleeves of his hoodie over and over in a nervous tic that Charles had noticed he did at times. Mick was standing in the open front door, shoulders tense and face neutral while Marcus was between the two, eyes flicking from one to the other.</p><p>‘I just think this will blow up in your face and it’s not something you should be handling Mick’, Callum tried to explain, his voice soft and meek in a way Charles had never heard before.</p><p>‘So much for ‘I will always support you Mick’, Mick scoffed, holding up a hand when Callum went to speak and turning away from him, ‘I don’t care what you have to say. You made yourself clear. I’m doing this whether you want me to or not. I don’t care anymore Callum’.</p><p>He didn’t wait for a response, simply picking up the duffle bag that was on the porch and making his way to the trio’s van, tossing it in the back before angrily slamming the doors shut and getting in the driver’s seat.</p><p>‘You…you can see how wrong this can go, right? I just don’t want anyone hurt, please tell me you understand’, Callum croaked, voice watery and running a hand through his hair in frustration.</p><p>‘I…. I can’t do this with you Cal. I’m going with Mick’, Marcus admitted softly, stepping forward to comfort Callum but the other flinched backwards.</p><p>‘Please…’, Callum whispered, one arm wrapped around his own waist, but Marcus just stared at him sadly.</p><p>‘We’ll be back in a few days okay, it’ll be okay, but I just don’t think Mick should be alone’, Marcus sighed, offering a small sad smile to his boyfriend before leaving to make his way to where Mick was waiting in the van.</p><p>As it pulled away, Callum seemed to sag, sitting on the bottom step of the stairs with his head in his hands and shoulders shaking as Charles materialised in front of him. Crouching and reaching out only to be faced with the bitter disappointment and distressed as he realised, he couldn’t truly touch or comfort Callum beyond tussling his hair or leaving a cold feeling on his skin.</p><p>‘Not now Charles’, Callum whispered at the feeling of ice on his shoulder, knowing the ghost was trying to comfort him but head aching from a small argument that had stretched into something explosive within minutes.</p><p>‘What happened mon Cheri? Why did they leave?’, Charles questioned, sitting in front of the distressed Brit, fiddling with the sleeves of his night gown as he waited for a reply.</p><p>It never came.</p><p>Callum simply shook his head before standing up, never looking at Charles as he turned and made his way up the stairs.</p><p>‘Hey, Callum, I just want to help but I can’t if you don’t explain why Mick was yelling. What did you do Callum?’, Charles sighed dramatically, even adding a little shake to the windows in demand for attention he never got.</p><p>Instead, Callum retreated to the bedroom furthest from the stairs. Even going as far as to stick the little drawing of a ghost within one of those red circles with the line through it that Marcus had doodled for when they wanted Charles to stay out of their room on the door before closing it.</p><p>Charles had tried everything over the next few hours to get the Brit’s attention. Shaking the windows, pelting the door with his replenished pile of pebbles from the garden, flickering the lights and even concentrating hard enough to mess with Callum’s laptop that he could hear playing softly from behind the closed door.</p><p>Eventually he had given up, leaving a small collection of biscuits and fruit outside the door as the day bled into night and Callum had yet to emerge for food.</p><p>This pattern continued the next day. Charles leaving food outside the food that disappeared when he wandered off to rattle the doors and stand in the garden pelting the window with pebbles until Callum closed the curtains. Charles even went as far as to sing. Loudly and out of tune in French and his accent exaggerated in a way that normally drove the boys insane.</p><p>Hell, he even turned on the spirit box and attempted to use its deafening sounds to talk to the other.</p><p>He had taken to talking to the door, his patience slipping as he tried to respect Callum’s need for space.</p><p>‘What did you do Callum, Mick never seems that mad’.</p><p>‘If you don’t tell me I will make all the electricity go down and leave you in the dark’.</p><p>‘Callum. Answer me. Are you alive? I don’t want Mick to give me that look if you’re dead, you know the disappointed one he gave us when we tested if I could stick all the living room furniture to the ceiling and broke the couch’.</p><p>‘If you don’t come talk to me, I will curse you to only ever have ugly left socks’.</p><p>It was during one of the times he was rambling at the door, floating up and down the hallway as he recounted the first time, he and Pierre had snuck away from their escort on a date and made out in the rose bushes, Charles’s dress getting ripped and his mother sighing as she plucked thorns from his hand and petals from his hair, that Callum emerged.</p><p>The Brit looked tired and pale, dark circles under his eyes and greasy hair. He had even grown the start of a beard that made Charles giggle as he floated towards him.</p><p>‘You look like my brothers cat after he licked his fur too much and stripped patches from it’, Charles teased, hoping to see Callum’s familiar smirk and here a witty quip but the other just stared through him.</p><p>For a second Charles wondered if he had forgotten to manifest again, but a few changes back and forth confirmed he had manifested. The Brit was just ignoring him again.</p><p>‘God Callum, with an attitude like that is it any wonder the boys were mad, hm?’, Charles threw out, frustrated at not being able to help the man before him.</p><p>He didn’t like to see his humans sad, and it hurt to have Callum distance himself when only the two of them remained.</p><p>‘I didn’t do anything’, Callum finally spoke, voice breaking and dry after days of disuse as he made his way towards the stairs.</p><p>‘No why don’t I believe that mon Cheri?’, Charles rolled his eyes, popping to the bottom of the stairs to stare at Callum as he descended, ‘Oh that’s right, I saw Mick yelling at you and Marcus siding with him, so you definitely did something’.</p><p>Callum gritted his teeth and meandered towards the kitchen as if he were remembering how to use his legs.</p><p>‘Just tell me what stupid thing you did and I can fix it. My suggestions for sex helped, so let me help you with this’ Charles pestered, pushing everything Callum reached for away as he repeated his questions. Demanding to know what had happened.</p><p>‘Would you shut up?’, Callum snapped, slamming the milk onto the counter, spilling some in the process.</p><p>‘No need to be dramatic darling, that’s my job. I’m just trying to help’, Charles raised his hands defensively.</p><p>Callum placed his elbows on the counter, burying his head in his hands, fingers rubbing at his temple as if his head hurt.</p><p>‘I don’t need your help, I need you to stop’, Callum bit out, ‘Yes we argued, all couples do. Yes I disagree with what he was leaving to do because if it fails it will only hurt people, mainly you Charles and I kind of like you when you aren’t being an ghostly pain in my ass like you have been the last two days’.</p><p>The admission made Charles freeze. He hadn’t expected it to be about him and old insecurities flooded through his system as he stared at the slumped over and tired Brit.</p><p>The last time one of the humans in his home had left was when Kimi went to look at his and Sebastian’s new home to do small renovations before they moved. Before they did what everyone did and left him. And now Marcus and Mick had left. Callum was worried what they were doing would hurt him.</p><p>There was only one conclusion.</p><p>They were leaving him.</p><p>‘Charles? Charles I’m sorry, mate’, Callum sighed straightening up and turning to face th ghost as he popped the switch for the kettle on the counter to on, ‘I didn’t mean to snap. I’m just angsty with them gone and my anxiety is acting up’.</p><p>Charles couldn’t bring himself to respond, his emotions running rampant as the thought of them leaving consumed him.</p><p>‘Charles, mate, where did you go? Why are the lights flickering so much?’, Callum was alert now, gazing around for his ghostly companion who was no longer to be found.</p><p>A door slammed upstairs, a result of Charles rushing to his room and trying to contain his fit. Maybe if he could control the emotions and hurt, they wouldn’t move out. So, he contained it to his room, letting the lights flicker and the window shake. Ignoring Callum knocking on the door, which was being held shut by his manipulation, so he didn’t accidently hurt the Brit.</p><p>The raging only stopped when Charles heard a thud and glass breaking, a sick feeling settling inside him as he glanced to where the picture of him and Pierre lay smashed. Charles wanted to sob, thinking he had destroyed the picture but as he reached for it, it was intact.</p><p>His only comfort, his source of strength on the darker days of his afterlife, yet now as he gazed at it, it just reminded him that Pierre had left this house too. And like the others, he had never come back.</p><p>Charles settled into the dark corner of his room. Letting the lights and windows settle, but keeping the door held shut despite Callum now being in the position Charles was in earlier. Calling through the door for him to talk.</p><p>Charles stayed silent, holding the picture and letting time blur.</p><p>‘Might as well get readjusted to this afterlife, it’s just going to be me alone in this house again soon, Pear’, he muttered to the image and closed his eyes, letting himself drift.</p><p>Ghosts didn’t sleep, but he had learned that they could just exist at times. Just breath and disconnect and that was what him did.</p><p>He wasn’t sure home many days past or didn’t when he allowed himself to be pulled from the void state at the sound of Marcus’s laughter filling the hallways and Callum’s thunderous run down the stairs as he yelled his boyfriends name in joy.</p><p>They had come back.</p><p>Charles braced himself for the inevitable, placing the picture on the bedside locked and popping downstairs. He didn’t manifest right away, hoovering invisibly in the doorway to the living room.</p><p>Callum was smiling brightly, freshly showered and shave, with Marcus’s legs wrapped around his waist and foreheads pressed together, Marcus’s giggling as Callum pulled away to press kissed all over his face and then one on his lips.</p><p>‘Do I get the same treatment, or are we still fighting?’, Mick tried to joke as he awkwardly stood in the front doorway, a big chest at his feet.</p><p>The chest called to Charles more than Callum placing Marcus on the ground to sweep Mick up into a kiss as Marcus cheered them on. Something about the worn, carved wood seemed familiar and Charles wanted to reach out and touch it.</p><p>‘Did you tell him?’, Mick questioned as he drew away from Callum’s lips, glancing around as Marcus squeezed his way between the two, holding them both close.</p><p>Callum shook his head, running a hand through Mick’s blond hair and giving Marcus a pat on the ass to make him grin.</p><p>‘Charles…I haven’t seen him since yesterday. I snapped at him over bugging me, and I think he took it personally’, Callum sighed, looking down, ‘I was a dick to him when he was trying to help me after our fight’.</p><p>‘Oh Cal’, Mick soothed, standing on his tiptoes to press a kiss against Callum’s head, ‘It’s okay, I can tell him now. Might be easier coming from me’.</p><p>Charles knew that if he were human, he would be sobbing right now in anger or fear. He wasn’t sure which, switching between anger at them leaving when he had told them once before that everyone left, and he was tired of his lonely house. Fear because he didn’t want to return to staring out the window and wallowing in what he had lost.</p><p>Despite his instinct to hide, to curl up in the attic and drift where they couldn’t find him, he was Charles Leclerc. And his mother had taught him to face everything with a brave face, even when he was hurting.</p><p>‘Tell me what mon Cheri? That I am simply too fabulous and beautiful for you three to handle so you are leaving to leave a dull, Charles free life?’ Charles tried to smirk, hoping his tone didn’t come off as sad as he felt.</p><p>Obviously, his poker face wasn’t what it used to be as Mick’s eyes filled with concern. His hand raising to his chest in the way he had before when Charles’s emotions were strong enough for him to feel.</p><p>‘You can’t get rid of us that easily Charles! You’re my ghost bff, I plan to haunt this house with you if I ever die’, Marcus smiled, walking over to stand next to Charles and miming bumping their shoulders even if it made Marcus shiver.</p><p>Charles was going to miss this boy and the way he tried to include him constantly.</p><p>‘As much as I would love to steal you for myself darling, I think your boyfriends wouldn’t approve’, Charles laughed softly, trying to ignore the look the three shared at the way his joke faded rather than landed with his usual witty bite.</p><p>Mick bent to pick up the chest, Callum helping him as they moved to the living room, setting it on the table. Mick smiling softly, rubbing the wood fondly as if the box were giving him good energy as opposed to Charles negative energy.</p><p>‘Charles, I wanted to tell you that –‘, Mick began but Charles cut him off.</p><p>‘That you are moving out? No one ever stays, I told you that’, Charles was resigned, tempted to fade and move away so he didn’t have to witness them pack.</p><p>‘What? Charles no, we are not leaving’, Mick exclaimed, baffled as the sadness hit him.</p><p>‘It’s okay mon Cheri, I know you left to go somewhere and that Callum was worried it would hurt me’, Charles sighed, drifting to stare out the window, ‘It’s fine, really. As long as I have my home and memories it will be fine’.</p><p>‘Oh mate no. You took me the wrong way Charles’, Callum moved towards him, trying to meet his eyes, ‘Mick left to go find something for you, and I didn’t want it to fall through because it would hurt you if you knew what he was doing’.</p><p>Charles turned towards them, confusion clear on his face as he watched Marcus hug Mick from behind. Mick’s hand still on the box and beckoning him over towards them. Charles obliged, Callum remaining at the opposite side of the table smiling encouragingly as Charles stood beside Mick, staring at the wooden box as it Mick thumbed the latch.</p><p>‘Charles, I went to speak to Pierre’s family. That’s what I was doing with Marcus’, Mick explained gently as Charles startled, looking at him with big hopeful eyes.</p><p>‘You…you found his family? Pierre had…he had family’, Charles whispered, mind immediately thinking of Pierre returning a war hero and widow. Of him finding someone to settle with and start the family he always wanted, of Pierre having great-great-great-great grandchildren wandering the earth.</p><p>He didn’t know whether he felt the need to cry tears he could never shed or smile at the though of little Pierre’s running around in the word with kind hearts and Pierre’s laugh.</p><p>‘I did some digging, found out what happened to Pierre after your death. You said he never cam home…’, Mick explained, leaning back into Marcus, ‘Charles…Pierre passed away a week after you died. He died under enemy fire while saving a small girl who had wandered towards the edge of enemy territory. His brother got all his affects, including a pocket watch you gave him and letters you wrote to him, his medals for bravery. It was past down through the family and they were happy to part with it’.</p><p>‘His niece told us to take it, that the family always said they would bring him home someday but never did. So, we brought it home. We brought his stuff home for you’, Marcus smiled, reaching out and letting his hand hover over where Charles’s shoulder was, ‘We didn’t find a ghost, mate, but we thought you should have these back. There’s even letters he never sent, and a few diaries inside’.</p><p>If he were alive, Charles would be a sobbing mess. All snot and ugly tears with shaking hands, but instead the chairs scooted around the room, one banging into Callum who hadn’t stepped back in time, as Charles ached.</p><p>‘I…can I…’, Charles tried to speak, words failing as he gestured to the box, burning with the need to hold something of Pierre’s once more.</p><p>Mick simply nodded, stepping away from the box, Marcus still attached to his back and Callum joining them. Tucking them into his side and dropping kisses on both their foreheads.</p><p>Charles thought about wait, about opening it in his room where he could be alone and grieve, yet the soft smiles and encouraging looks from his humans gave him strength to reach out and unclip the old locks at either end of the chest.</p><p>Bundles of letters, all stacked neatly were at one side. A mix of his own and Pierre’s handwriting visible. Medals were tucked into a glass case and Charles could almost picture how Pierre would have smiled proudly when they were awarded. One of his blue military jackets was tucked into the rest of the space, but Charles only had eyes for the silver pocket watch and chain that lay on top of it.</p><p>He pulled it softly from the box, cradling it gently in his hands. Aside from a few scratches, it was perfectly intact. He flipped it over, stroking a hand over the engraving as if he could still feel it. It had their wedding date engraved, a simple ‘counting the minutes until you come home’, with their initials under it. He ignored the whispered behind him, the little gasp from Mick as he opened it, unable to supress his emotions to save the little empath from drowning in them with him as he gazed at the picture tucked inside. It had faded lines from being folded but Charles could clearly still see the image of them kissing. Charles in his blue and gold wedding dress and Pierre in his military uniform. Although it wasn’t in colour, Charles could picture it all clearly.</p><p>‘Thank you for this. All I ever wanted was for him to come home, to know why he never came home, and now I know. I have a little piece of him with me’, Charles choked, pressing the pocket watch to the front of his chest over his heart.</p><p>The room was silent for a moment, the quiet allowing Charles to grieve and process, until it was broken.</p><p>‘I always told you I would find a way home, mon Coeur’, a soft accented voice made Charles startle.</p><p>The pocket watch hurtling towards the floor as he spun around, lights flickering with the wave of emotions, Mick managing to catch the pocket watch before it hit the floor as Charles stared, hands covering his mouth, at the person in the doorway.</p><p>‘Pierre…PIERRE’, Charles cried out, dashing forward as Pierre laughed, the sound filling him with warmth and joy as he spread his arms for Charles.</p><p>Charles had always wondered if he could touch other ghosts, if it would feel the way it felt to touch another human when he was alive, and now he had his answer as he collided with Pierre, arms wrapping around the other ghost’s neck and burying his face in the military jacket he wore as Pierre wrapped his arms tightly around him.</p><p>‘You’re...you’re here, you’re really here’, Charles muttered, fingers tightening in the material as he felt Pierre drop a kiss on his head.</p><p>‘Mon Coeur, I’m right here. I’m home, I got you Charlie, I found you’, Pierre reassured rubbing a hand up and down the others back.</p><p>‘Oh my god, he calls him Charlie, do you think I could get away with that?’, Marcus whispered loudly, receiving two smacks from the sound of it and hissed ‘shut up idiot’ from Callum.</p><p>‘I never thought I’d see you again, I can’t believe you are here’, Charles was in awe as he pulled back, hand cupping Pierre’s face as the other pressed a kiss to his palm.</p><p>‘I promised myself with my last breath that I would make it back to you. I only appeared once to my brother, asking him to take me home to you but the war continued and he past so I’ve been waiting’, Pierre smiled sadly, hands on Charles’s waist and holding him close.</p><p>‘It doesn’t matter, mon Ange, you are here and as beautiful as ever. That is all that matters now. God, I never stopped loving you or waiting for you’, Charles admitted, tucking his head back under Pierre’s chin, laughing softly in disbelief.</p><p>‘I love you too Charlie, death will never take that from me’, Pierre smiled, glancing at the trio, watching as they held each other and fretted over the blond as he teared up, ‘We have your friends to thank for this, they love you too mon Coeur’.</p><p>‘Happy to help, I owe my relationship to Charles and his dramatic ways, least I could do is try find you’, Mick smiled, brushing tears from his cheek, laughing as Charles turned to pout at them.</p><p>‘I am not that dramatic’, he huffed, cuddling further into Pierre, afraid to move away in case he disappeared.</p><p>‘Oh baby, you were always dramatic. I don’t think death could change that’, Pierre laughed, making the trio burst into another round of giggles as Charles turned back to glare at Pierre, slapping his shoulder lightly.</p><p>He went to grumble at his husband, to scold him for ruining their reunion with slander when lips captured his in a soft kiss. The feeling and emotion welling inside him until the lights started to flicker again as he wrapped his arms back around Pierre’s neck to pull him into a deeper kiss. Feeling that blank space inside him finally fade away as he let himself melt into Pierre’s hold and kiss.</p><p>‘Do you think if they had sex…. they’d blow the light bulls considering a simple kiss is making the lights go all Stranger Things?’, Marcus wondered out loud, making Pierre laugh into the kiss as Charles groaned, pulling away to hide in Pierre’s shoulder at the stupidity of the humans he had grown attached to.</p><p>‘Shut up Marcus, oh my god’, Mick laughed, mirroring Charles’s position and burying his head in Callum’s chest to hide from Marcus’s questioning.</p><p>‘Hey, it’s a valid question, and I think we should know if we need to stock up on lightbulbs or not!’, Marcus exclaimed, his words leading the other two to bicker back and forth with him.</p><p>Charles couldn’t help but smile and bask in it, letting Pierre’s touch warm him and the sound of his humans settle the insecurities that had plagued him for the last day.</p><p>‘Are they always like this?’, Pierre whispered, tilting Charles face up to stare into his eyes as he did.</p><p>‘Yeah, they’re idiots, but they’re my idiots’, Charles replied before pulling Pierre into another kiss.</p><p>Later, they would lay in their bed, in the room they had shared and planned a life in and look through old memories and smile, laughing as they remembered friends and family, their wedding and how their brothers had tried to threaten the other to treat each other well in their married life.</p><p>And for once, as he reminisced, his head on Pierre’s chest, and a hand soothing through his hair as he closed his eyes and just talked, Charles didn’t feel regret for the life he hadn’t lived.</p><p>He felt joy and peace for the afterlife he was going to live with Pierre by his side.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This au has a life of its own and I am in love with it!</p><p>Possibly there will be an eventual third part to this series, I have the idea ready for when I have time to write, but for now enjoy the chaotic trio and dramatic ghost sharl!</p><p>Drop a comment if you want to scream with me about these boys and ghost sharl!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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